This invention generally relates to online voice chat sessions, and more specifically, pertains to selecting recipients of voice chat data and is especially useful for enhancing communication between players in multiplayer online electronic games.
The popularity of multiplayer online games on the Internet has exploded in recent years. Unlike conventional single-player computer games, multiplayer online games enable a player to participate in games with other players, either as an individual or as a team member. The multiplayer aspect of these games adds to the players"" gaming experience by offering new gaming considerations, including strategy, teamwork, and promoting rivalry with competing players.
Communication between players during the game is often a key aspect of multiplayer game play. For example, members of a team can devise strategy during on-line text chat sessions, as a game progresses. Under certain circumstances, it may be desirable to communicate with other players on a one-to-one basis. At other times, it may be advantageous to communicate with all of the members of an entire team. In the past, players have been able to communicate with one another by entering text in a chat dialog for transmission over the network to one or more other selected players. This text-based chat method favors those players with the best typing skills, and requires players to set aside their game control devices in order to use a keyboard to chat with other players. It is also extremely inconvenient to stop directing the game action to change the person or persons the text messages are being directed to. To minimize the amount of typing required while chatting in this manner, more experienced players have developed abbreviated code to communicate longer messages with fewer characters. However, new players are placed at a disadvantage, since they are not likely to know the abbreviated code, and even if they have a key to the code, their communication will be slowed since they are not familiar with it.
Clearly, it would be desirable to employ advances in gaming hardware and software to enable players to communicate verbally to one another over separate voice chat channels. Providing such an option would greatly enhance communication, since verbal speech is much faster than text-based communication, and does not require the players to remove their hands from their game control devices in order to communicate. In addition, enabling players to verbally communicate with one another will substantially eliminate the advantage that the more experienced players have had over beginning players, with respect to typing speed and use of abbreviated codes.
Ideally, a verbal chat session should provide an easy way for players to initiate a voice chat session and enable them to selectively communicate with other players in a game through use of an intuitive interface. Additionally, the players should be able to selectively assign chat channels to selected individual player(s) or entire teams so that each player can more easily control the other players who will hear them, and those who will not.
In accordance with the present invention, a method and system are provided for enabling various players to participate in a voice chat session conducted over a communications network, in which players are either automatically or manually assigned to different voice chat channels. The method enables a player to host a chat session by automatically generating a list of contacts from which the host can choose to invite others to join the voice chat session. Upon joining the voice chat session, players are automatically assigned to voice chat channels based on an order in which they join the voice chat session. Optionally, voice chat channel assignments may be pre-assigned by the host, or reassigned by individual users after their initial automatic assignment. In addition, players can be selectively assigned to a xe2x80x9cteamxe2x80x9d channel, and players may use an xe2x80x9callxe2x80x9d channel to communicate with all of the participants in a voice chat session. By assigning players to chat channels in this manner, each player is able to choose which other players are able to hear them during the voice chat session, which is particularly advantageous during the playing of online multiplayer games.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a method for enabling voice chat communication over a communications network comprising a plurality of electronic devices (e.g., personal computers (PCs)) linked in communication is provided. Each of the electronic devices is operated by a different user having a unique user identification. A plurality of voice chat channels are controlled through the combined use of a gaming utility application running on each computer and a channel controller device connected to each computer. Optionally, various keys on a keyboard may be remapped to serve the functions of channel controller device described below. In addition, each of the channel controller devices is connected to a headset that is worn by a user that includes a pair of headphones and a microphone. The gaming utility application cooperates with an online messaging service, preferably Microsoft Corporation""s MSN Messenger Service(trademark), so as to provide a list of contacts for each of the users based on the contact list of each user with the online messaging service, along with a messaging service availability status for the users. Upon logging onto the communications network and launching the gaming utility and the online messaging service, each user is presented with a user interface that includes a chat pane on which a list of chat sessions the user may join is displayed, along with a list of contacts for the user.
A user can host a chat session by selecting contacts in the contact list who will be invited to join the voice chat session, whereupon each of the selected contacts is provided with an electronic invitation to join the chat session, preferably comprising both text and a verbal content. Upon acceptance of the invitation, each user is automatically assigned to a voice chat channel on the host""s computer based on an order in which the user joins the chat session. Preferably, the voice chat channel assignments are based on the next available channel for both the host and the other chat session participants. As each channel is assigned, visual indicia on each chat session participant""s channel controller device are enunciated, and a computer-generated voice announcement regarding the voice chat channel assignments is provided to each chat session participant over the participant""s respective headset.
Each user may manually reassign users on their voice chat channels, and the host may pre-assign voice chat channels to contacts the host desires to invite to the chat session. The host is also enabled to select whether the voice chat session may only be joined by invited contacts, or may be joined by anyone. An IP address corresponding to the network address of the host""s computer is provided to the host so that the host may communicate the IP address to other users who are not in the host""s contact list to enable these other users to join the chat session. Preferably, if such session is by invitation only, this IP address is not made available to the other users so that the host can control which persons participate in the voice chat session.
In accordance with further aspects of the present invention, the channel controller device enables each user to selectively determine the other users who are enabled to hear the user. The channel controller device includes various control buttons corresponding to a plurality of individual voice chat channels, a team chat channel, and an xe2x80x9cAllxe2x80x9d channel. The device enables a user to selectively assign individual voice chat channels to the team chat channel without requiring that such assignment be made with the user interface of the gaming utility application, which provides an optional alternative method for assigning channels to the team chat channel. If desired, a user can selectively have all of the other participants in the voice chat session hear the user by activating the xe2x80x9cAllxe2x80x9d channel button. The channel controller device further includes control buttons for toggling between a voice chat data mode and a voice recognition command and control mode, as well as for muting the microphone connected to the device. Additionally, the channel controller device includes electronic circuitry for converting analog microphone data into a digitally encoded format suitable for transmission over a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, and for decoding digitally-formatted chat data received from other users"" electronic devices and converting the data into appropriate signals for driving the headphones to the user to hear other chat session participants who have assigned the user to one of their voice chat channels.
A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to a system that implements the steps of the method discussed above. The system includes a processor and memory for storing machine instructions executed by the processor to implement functions generally consistent with the steps of the method.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is directed to the channel control device as discussed above.